I got into Omaha after 8 p.m. on a recent trip out there. I was staying in the Aksarben Village area of central Omaha and I just wanted to get something to eat that was close to the hotel. The young lady at the desk had suggested eating at the hotel and I told her that while I appreciated the fact that she wanted me to eat in that evening, I was more of an adventurous type when it came to finding restaurants. She gave me a list of restaurants that were close by - some by walking distance. One of those restaurants was a place just down the way called Beacon Hills.
Craig McVeigh grew up in a small eastern Nebraska town and moved to Omaha not long after graduating high school to work with his brother framing houses. To help supplement his income, Craig worked in the kitchen at a couple three restaurants in the Omaha area. It was while he was working at one of the restaurants where he met the co-owner of the popular M's Pub in the Old Market area in downtown Omaha. Craig struck up a conversation with the owner and sort of "fibbed" a bit on his qualifications for working in the a restaurant. He was eventually hired to run the kitchen and with one of his former bosses advising him on the side, he was able to pull off his initial charade.
It was at M's Pub where Craig met a young lady by the name of Anne Regan. Anne grew up in Omaha - her family was involved in the cattle broker business at the Omaha stockyards - and she was working her way through college as a waitress. The couple soon married and started a life together working in restaurants.
The McVeigh's soon left M's Pub and got in on the ground floor of an expansion of the Garden Cafe restaurants in the Omaha area. As they learned more about the business and advancing up the chain, the opportunity to open their own Garden Cafe franchise in Lincoln came up. The McVeigh's moved to Lincoln and opened their first Garden Cafe in the 1990's. They became so successful, they opened a second location not long after opening their first one.
Just before the turn of the millennium, the McVeigh's were looking to do something else. An opportunity arose to do their own restaurant in a new hotel development on the north side of Lincoln. The McVeigh's sold their Garden Cafe franchises and opened Beacon Hills in 1999. They asked one of their Garden Cafe chefs, Elizabeth Reissig-Anderson, to come to their new restaurant as the head chef.
Beacon Hills' creative American comfort food menu became an instant hit with the locals in Lincoln, NE. The McVeigh's had a nice 16 year run in Lincoln before the owners of the hotel sold the property. The new property owners weren't interested in renewing the Beacon Hills lease and the couple had to close their restaurant. Hoping to re-open in Lincoln, the couple eventually saw that finding a spot in Lincoln was not in the offing and they looked to the east to Omaha's Aksarben Village entertainment and shopping complex. Bringing many of their long-time staff in Lincoln - including Reissig-Anderson - to the new restaurant proved to be a good thing. The McVeigh's, with the help of their daughter Beth, opened the Omaha edition of Beacon Hills in October of 2016.
Beacon Hills is located at the corner of Ak-Sar-Ben Drive (Aksarben is Nebraska spelled backwards. Get it?) and Mercy Dr. (see map) It was a walk through the covered garage and around a corner from my hotel. Walking into the restaurant I found a very attractive and modern setting that featured a long dining room with a wall of windows on one side and a series of booths on the opposite side. Four-seater tables with comfy curved back chairs were in a row down the middle.
I asked the hostess if I could sit at the bar and she said it was no problem. Three flat screen televisions were situated above the shelves of liquor on the back bar. A rather loud and robust group of women were enjoying appetizers and drinks at one of the long high top tables in the bar. Pulling up a seat at the bar, I was greeted by the bartender with the name of Mason. I asked him what he had on tap for IPA beers. He said he had a One Way IPA from the Brickway Brewery and Distillery in Omaha, and he had a Frame the Butcher IPA from the Kinkaider Brewing Company in the west central Nebraska town of Broken Bow. I tried a sample of both and decided that I liked the Kinkaider a bit better. I got a pint of that to start out.
Mason gave me a menu to look over and I have to say that it was pretty interesting. Some of the appetizers could have been mistaken for main dishes. They had sausage-stuffed lasagna bites, panko-breaded chicken strips, and crab cakes. Main entrees included a Yankee pot roast stroganoff, smoked kielbasa with sauerkraut and German potatoes, chicken carbonara pasta, a Delmonico ribeye steak, and chicken Florentine. They had a number of burgers and sandwiches on the menu including a burger with grilled onions, onion straws and topped with an onion spread (no word if breath mints came with the burger), and a jalapeño cornbread chicken sandwich that looked like it could have come with a fire extinguisher for the mouth.
I was torn between a number of items. The Yankee pot roast stroganoff was appealing, as was the mini meat loaf platter with garlic mashed potatoes and a beef gravy. I considered the reuben sandwich - Omaha may be the epicenter for great reuben sandwiches - and I figured Beacon Hills had to have a good one. But in the end, I went with the hot beef sandwich.
I asked Mason if I could start out with a wedge salad and he said it would be no problem. It featured a quarter iceberg wedge that was crisp and cool. The salad was topped with real chopped bacon, chopped onions, blue cheese crumbles and a cool ranch-style dressing. I probably could have stopped with the wedge, but when he brought out the hot beef sandwich, well, let's say I was glad I didn't.
The hot beef sandwich was pure culinary Americana - it was served open-faced on a bed of garlic-mashed potatoes on top of a piece of white bread. A thick and robust beef gravy topped the sandwich along with chopped green onions and tomatoes.
The hot beef sandwich was simply a spot-hitter. On a cold late winter night, the tender and lean roast beef coupled with the real garlic-mashed potatoes and the great brown gravy were a great combination to ward off the chill of the weather. It would be what many old-timers would categorize as a "stick-to-your-ribs" kind of meal. It was simply fabulous.
I have to believe that there are many people in Lincoln who are lamenting the loss of Beacon Hills as a restaurant. But I'm sure many in Omaha are celebrating the fact that they now have a place like Beacon Hills that celebrates classic American comfort food with a modern twist. The choices offered were almost too enticing, but for my first ever visit there I was more than happy with the hot beef sandwich as my main meal and the wedge salad as a starter. They had a number of things on the menu that I'd love to try at some point in time, and they had a number of interesting local craft beers to choose from. I was thoroughly impressed about everything in my visit to Beacon Hills.
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